Hats off! This is for you Colonel!

The other day while I was chatting with a friend I remembered something about my grandfather. The particular thing that came up in my mind was the fact that everybody knew him. Even if I didn’t realized at that moment who he was and what he accomplished in his life( for me he was just my grandfather), now looking back in time things acquire a totally different perspective. My grandfather was from a small village close to my home town, where people always looked up to him for the life he built for himself. He dedicated his entire life to the army, military service and his family. Growing up I always thought that having a happy childhood and some fairytale parents and grandparents is a given fact that happens to everybody. Then I realized that fairytales are not so common and the characters you meet along the way mess up big time your happy endings. It might be hard for the ones that never had the affection or the fairytale to understand the love and the gratitude I feel as I can’t understand how I could have got here without being there first. I miss my childhood and the fact that when you’re a child you know so precisely what you want to do with your life when u grow up:) And then you do and you’re so clueless about what you are going to do next. Our grandparents can’t prepare the future for us, but they prepare us for the future and everybody going through his childhood has enough information about life to last him for the rest of his days. My grandfather taught me so many things and I’ll never forget his dedication for fishing, the love for folk music, the talent for bowling or the passion for football that I inherited.

There are 3 years since he left. I miss him a lot today. The image of the man that was never angry is deeply stuck in my mind. Sometimes I feel like walking on the streets of my home town, and even if many of the people he used to know are also gone, I would proudly tell everyone, I’m his granddaughter. I bow before you. This is for you Colonel!